Have you ever been invited to a dinner party with the words “just bring a salad”? This Little Pig has, in fact it has said that very word to others when they are coming to dine at LPHQ. One time however, every single one of the 30 guests got told to “just bring a salad” and complete greenery mayhem ensued. Whilst the vegetarians in the room were probably cackling with glee that for the very first time they had been catered for appropriately, the whole situation was a disaster and this was mostly because 90% of people decided they would be safe Susie's and bring a garden salad.
Anyway, we won’t go too far into the greenery disaster of 2014, but we will give you a delightful salad recipe that you can make when someone says, “just bring a salad”. Which by the way, shouldn’t have the word “just” in it, because it’s actually quite time consuming. To impress people, you spend a fortune on vegetables you never normally use and if you’re anything like this swine you’re making it 10 mins before you have to leave in your underwear. THEN to top it off you have to try and transport the salad on your knee. This of course creates tension between you and your lovely partner whose driving (rather recklessly in your opinion) whilst you yell “CAREFUL! THIS DRESS IS MADE OF SILK AND SALAD DRESSING STAINS!!!!!”
So this salad is still annoying to transport like most salads, but it is beautiful, it’s crunchy, it’s so very springtime and hopefully no one else in the room will have thought to make this particular dish. If you are doing it at home, you can team it with some lovely lamb cutlets or a panko and lemon thyme crumbed pork chop or perhaps a glorious piece of crispy salmon fillet. Either way, this salad screams “SPRING!” and “I’M SEASONAL!” in a very happy and joyful way. Enjoy piglets. Oink!
Crunchy Snow pea, Asparagus, Broccolini, Bacon & Pine Nut Salad.
Feeds: 4-6 people as a side salad.
Prep Time: 10 Mins. Cooking Time: 20 Mins.
Ingredients of Spring Delight:
350g x Snow Peas
2 x Broccollini Bunch
2 x Asparagus Bunch
200g x Bacon
30g x Pinenuts
150g x Frozen Peas (1cup)
1 x Tbs Olive Oil
1 x Tbs Sesame Oil
1 x Tbs Sesame Seeds
2 x Tbs White Wine Vinegar
1 x Mint Bunch
1 x Lime
Salt for Boiling Water
Method of Spring Delight:
- Heat a large pot of salted water until boiling.
- Dice bacon (200g) into tiny squares.
- Chop ends off snow peas (350g).
- Snap ends off asparagus (2) & discard & chop the rest into bite sized chunks.
- Slice broccolini (2) in half lengthways and chop into bite sized lengths.
- Heat a medium sized fry pan with your olive oil and drop in your diced bacon. Cook until crispy (like really crispy) and oh so delicious. Set aside once finished, ready to serve.
- Place your broccolini, asparagus, snow peas and frozen peas into a large bowl and pour your boiling water over the top.
- **This step is very important. Only let the veggies blanch in the water for 30-60 seconds or until the asparagus and broccolini are just cooked but still crunchy – nothing worse than a soggy piece of broccoli or asparagus piglets.
- After the veggies are blanched to crunchy perfection, strain and refresh by placing in a bowl of iced cold water (they will keep cooking and get super soggy if you miss this step lazy piglet).
- Drain well and arrange on a lovely platter.
- Drizzle over your sesame oil (1 Tbs), white wine Vinegar (2 Tbs) & squeeze of fresh lime.
- **Now ideally this next step is best done just before serving so that it adds a hot crunch to your salad.
- Heat a small fry pan and pour in your pinenuts (30g) & sesame seeds (1 Tbs). Dry roast these beauties, stirring regularly, until pinenuts turn golden.
- Scatter your bacon over the salad then top with your hot sesame seeds and golden pine nuts – be careful these little sesame seed guys retain their heat, so don’t use a bare trotter.
- Rip up your mint leaves over the top and serve with flourish. Oink!
